Category / Research Ethics

REMINDER that the online ethics checklist will not be available from tomorrow, Friday 24th August 2018 until Monday 3rd September. During this time students/staff will not be able to apply for ethical approval. This is to allow for data migration.

The new online checklist will be available from Monday 3rd September 2018.

If you currently have an ethics checklist in the system and you are in the process of seeking ethical approval you will need to make sure it’s approvedtoday or you may find you’ll have additional questions to answers when the new checklist comes online!

REMINDER that the online ethics checklist will not be available from Friday 24th August 2018 until Monday 3rd September. During this time students/staff will not be able to apply for ethical approval. This is to allow for data migration.

The new online checklist will be available from Monday 3rd September 2018.

If you currently have an ethics checklist in the system and you are in the process of seeking ethical approval you will need to make sure it’s approved today/23 August or you may find you’ll have additional questions to answers when the new checklist comes online!

Are you currently in the process of designing, setting up or planning your research study, and would like to extend your project into the NHS?

Yes? Then you may want to take advantage of this training opportunity.

Oliver Hopper (Research & Development Coordinator, Royal Bournemouth and Christchurch Hospital) and Suzy Wignall (Clinical Governance Advisor, R&KEO) will be running a training session on how to use, and complete your own application within the IRAS system.

IRAS (Integrated Research Application System) is the system used to gain approvals from the NHS Research Ethics Committee and Health Research Authority, before rolling out your study to NHS Trusts. To support this, the session will include the background to research ethics and the approvals required for NHS research.

The session will also be interactive, and so as participants, you will have the opportunity to go through the form itself and complete the sections, with guidance on what the reviewers are expecting to see in your answers, and tips on how to best use the system.

The training will take place in Studland House, room 103 on Thursday 23rd August, at 13:00pm – 16:00pm.

REMINDER that the online ethics checklist will not be available from Friday 24th August 2018 until Monday 3rd September. During this time students/staff will not be able to apply for ethical approval. This is to allow for data migration.

The new online checklist will be available from Monday 3rd September 2018.

Are you currently in the process of designing, setting up or planning your research study, and would like to extend your project into the NHS?

Yes? Then you may want to take advantage of this training opportunity.

Oliver Hopper (Research & Development Coordinator, Royal Bournemouth and Christchurch Hospital) and Suzy Wignall (Clinical Governance Advisor, R&KEO) will be running a training session on how to use, and complete your own application within the IRAS system.

IRAS (Integrated Research Application System) is the system used to gain approvals from the NHS Research Ethics Committee and Health Research Authority, before rolling out your study to NHS Trusts. To support this, the session will include the background to research ethics and the approvals required for NHS research.

The session will also be interactive, and so as participants, you will have the opportunity to go through the form itself and complete the sections, with guidance on what the reviewers are expecting to see in your answers, and tips on how to best use the system.

The training will take place in Studland House, room 103 on Thursday 23rd August, at 13:00pm – 16:00pm.

Are you currently undertaking research within the NHS and your Good Clinical Practice (GCP) training is due to expire? Or has it expired recently?

GCP certification lasts for two years, so if your training is due to expire, has expired, or you want to validate your learning, then take advantage of the upcoming refresher half day session, taking place at Dorset County Hospital, Dorchester, Wednesday 15th August, 9am – 12:30pm.

Spaces are still remaining and the closing date for bookings is the end of tomorrow 7th August – so if you’d like to enrol, get in touch with researchethics@bournemouth.ac.uk

Are you currently in the process of designing, setting up or planning your research study, and would like to extend your project into the NHS?

Yes? Then you may want to take advantage of this training opportunity.

Oliver Hopper (Research & Development Coordinator, Royal Bournemouth and Christchurch Hospital) and Suzy Wignall (Clinical Governance Advisor, R&KEO) will be running a training session on how to use, and complete your own application within the IRAS system.

IRAS (Integrated Research Application System) is the system used to gain approvals from the NHS Research Ethics Committee and Health Research Authority, before rolling out your study to NHS Trusts. To support this, the session will include the background to research ethics and the approvals required for NHS research.

The session will also be interactive, and so as participants, you will have the opportunity to go through the form itself and complete the sections, with guidance on what the reviewers are expecting to see in your answers, and tips on how to best use the system.

The training will take place in Studland House, room 103 on Thursday 23rd August, at 13:00pm – 16:00pm.

The HRA have recently released a blog post, written by their Director of Policy, Juliet Tizzard surrounding Research waste and ensuring transparency. The blog goes into the importance of ensuring that research results, even if unfavourable, are published and disseminated appropriately.

Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) is a growing part of clinical research, and as such the National Institute for Health Research have released a pilot training resource surrounding PPI – free, and available via the NIHR Learn website (select the NIHR Endorsed Learning link).

PPI is defined as ‘research being carried out ‘with’ or ‘by’ members of the public rather than ‘to’, ‘about’ or ‘for’ them’, and there are clear benefits to incorporating this into your own research. The module will take you through the importance, theory and practice of PPI.
In applying for NIHR grants and funding, this is a core requirement. Likewise evidence of this activity having taken place, will be requested.

On the above website, there are further training modules available surrounding various key areas of clinical research.If you wish to book onto any of the face-to-face Good Clinical Practice courses, please get in touch with Research Ethics.

Are you currently undertaking research within the NHS and your Good Clinical Practice (GCP) training is due to expire? Or has it expired recently?

GCP certification lasts for two years, so if your training is due to expire, has expired, or you want to validate your learning, then take advantage of the upcoming refresher half day session, taking place at Dorset County Hospital, Dorchester, Wednesday 15th August, 9am – 12:30pm.

What is consciousness? In the traditional view, consciousness is a state of self-awareness in which the brain can experience perceptions; but which suddenly disappears in anaesthesia, coma or dreamless sleep. However, the common belief that there is sharp edge between an underlying unconscious state and consciousness is being challenged by new neurophysiological findings and theoretical models.

Is an isolated network of cells, a piece of mammal brain confined in a dish (an in vitro preparation) “conscious of itself”? if so, how can this be demonstrated? And by extension, is it a complex neuronal network model, capable of emulating the causal computations of such neuronal circuit, able to perform conscious functions?

Professor Maria-Victora Sanchez-Vives is the leader of an associated project within the large Human Brain Project initiative, https://www.humanbrainproject.eu/en/ a FLAGSHIP FET 2020 project, spanning for 10 years and involving the over 100 European Universities. Mavi Sanchez-Vives co-supervises a Bournemouth University PhD student, Mr Roman Arango-Cabrera, whose research focuses on studying the rhythms of the spontaneous neuronal activity in isolated cortical slices in vitro.

I was particularly keen to know directly from the team of experienced postdoctoral researchers the experimental process leading to the datasets that Roman has been analysing. Likewise, I was very excited about explaining Mavi and the team the new ideas that we are designing in Bournemouth.

Their recording techniques are especially devised for identifying the spatiotemporal propagation of extracellular potentials through a neuronal network. During my short period in Barcelona, we discussed the design of a new experiment, a variant of their current state-of-the-art recording system by enhancing the precision of the registrations. This new experiment can serve as a feasibility test for our new algorithms developed in Bournemouth University.

The visit was successful in every way, I learned a lot and enjoyed very much the atmosphere in the lab during the four days I spent with them. I am very grateful to Mavi, Vanessa and to every member of the Lab for the invitation and for the great support.

In summary, in the quest for a biophysical substrate of consciousness, a key milestone is the understanding of spontaneous activity propagation in isolated cortical networks; which is the topic of this training visit supported by the Erasmus + Mobility funds. The boundary between conscious and unconscious states seems to be increasingly blurred with each new advance in the area; proposing exciting ethical challenges for the following decade.

Are you currently undertaking research within the NHS and your Good Clinical Practice (GCP) training is due to expire? Or has it expired recently?

GCP certification lasts for two years, so if your training is due to expire, has expired, or you want to validate your learning, then take advantage of the upcoming refresher half day session, taking place at Dorset County Hospital, Dorchester, Wednesday 15th August, 9am – 12:30pm.

Are you currently undertaking research within the NHS and your Good Clinical Practice (GCP) training is due to expire? Or has it expired recently?

GCP certification lasts for two years, so if your training is due to expire, has expired, or you want to validate your learning, then take advantage of the upcoming refresher half day session, taking place at Dorset County Hospital, Dorchester, Wednesday 15th August, 9am – 12:30pm.

Congratulations to Dr. Ans Luyben on her latest co-authored midwifery publication: ‘Conscientious objection to participation in abortion by midwives and nurses: a systematic review of reasons’ in the Open Access journal BMC Medical Ethics. The UK co-authors are linked with Liverpool John Moores University and the University of Liverpool, whilst the third co-author is from Germany. Ans works in Swtzerland and she is Visiting Faculty in the Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health (CMMPH).

Are you currently in the process of designing, setting up or planning your research study, and would like to extend your project into the NHS?

Yes? Then you may want to take advantage of this training opportunity.

Oliver Hopper (Research & Development Coordinator, Royal Bournemouth and Christchurch Hospital) and Suzy Wignall (Clinical Governance Advisor, R&KEO) will be running a training session on how to use, and complete your own application within the IRAS system.

IRAS (Integrated Research Application System) is the system used to gain approvals from the NHS Research Ethics Committee and Health Research Authority, before rolling out your study to NHS Trusts. To support this, the session will include the background to research ethics and the approvals required for NHS research.

The session will also be interactive, and so as participants, you will have the opportunity to go through the form itself and complete the sections, with guidance on what the reviewers are expecting to see in your answers, and tips on how to best use the system.

The training will take place in Studland House, room 103 on Thursday 23rd August, at 13:00pm – 16:00pm.

On Wednesday 27th June 2018 the Department of Psychology at BU hosted a very successful “So you want to do research in the NHS?” event that was organised by Dr Ellen Seiss and Dr Helen Bolderston, both Senior Lecturers in the Department of Psychology.

The success of the event was very positively commented on by the newly formed Clinical Governance Group and they recommended the development of a similar university wide workshop for all academic university staff.

The aim for this two-hour information sharing and networking event for academic psychologists was to provide expert support and guidance for academics who might undertake research in NHS settings. The emphasis of this event was on collaboration and support, and included brief presentations, panel discussions and Q&A sessions.

We brought together a fantastic group of speakers and panel members, including:

Laura Purandare, Research Q&I Manager, Royal Bournemouth and Christchurch Hospital

Dr Ciaran Newell, Research and Development Lead, Dorset HealthCare University NHS Foundation Trust

Clare Rook, Research Delivery Manager at the Wessex Clinical Research Network

At the end of the event attendees felt that they had gained a great deal of clarity about topics such as NHS Ethics and Health Research Authority approval systems, clinical research sponsorship, access to NHS services (clinicians and patients), and key local sources of on-going support and guidance.